Milestone: the estoile is finished

I returned to painting the estoile after breakfast Sunday morning. With the tent dry, I had the opportunity to make some better arrangements to accomodate the hour or two of drying time. (Additionally, Saturday was damp, which slowed drying time.) I added a low bench to the right side of the tables. This bench supports the two wet rays, while the next two rays are in the process of being painted. With a fan directed on the bench, we were able to paint fairly continuously, rotating the tent after each pair was completed. As we were hitting the bottom of the can and the last two rays by late afternoon, Robert made a run to Lowe's for another quart of paint. I had just scraped out the last of the second can, when he returned. Timing is,.as they say, everything.

Also on Saturday, I rooted through the fabric stash and found ample canvas scraps - enough for the hoop casing, and for bags. I'm not sure it's a miracle, but it sure is fortunate. It's not the treated stuff, but should serve in any case. I cut out the roof cap from one of the larger pieces, and began to decorate it. We wanted to incorporate some gold into the design, and so I decided to add an additional estoile similar to the one that caps this pavilion from the first half of the seventeenth century. This one is gold. Since I'd used the alternating straight/wavy pattern on the roof, I continued this motif on the cap.

Robert cut the remainder of the hoop casing out of the scraps, and measured them for sewing, before we fell into bed.